Mangapwani

Mangapwani is a town on the Tanzanian island of Unguja, the main island of Zanzibar. It is located on the northwest coast, 25 kilometres north of the Zanzibari capital of Stone Town.

The town's name means "Arabian Shore" in swahili,^[1] a name which probably dates from the black-market slavery days of the 1840s to 1880s. The shoreline here contains numerous caves, some of which were used for holding slaves at that time. Among the caves is a popular attraction, the Coral Cavern, which is located two kilometres south of the town.

Footnotes

1. ^ More specifically, the word "manga" refers to Muscat (Omani) arabs; arabs born in Zanzibar are called mwarabu. See W.H. Ingrams, Zanzibar, Its History and Its People p. 205, [1]

References

• Finke, J. (2006) The Rough Guide to Zanzibar (2nd edition). New York: Rough Guides.